


Hakuna Matata

by TFALokiwriter



Category: The Lion Guard (Cartoon), The Lion King (1994), The Lion King (2019), Timon & Pumbaa (Cartoon 1995)
Genre: Death Fic, Death from Old Age, F/M, Future Fic, Old Age, Pride Lands (The Lion King)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-17 23:33:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19965049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TFALokiwriter/pseuds/TFALokiwriter
Summary: Simba's time was ending and there was only one place that he would rather spend the end at.





	Hakuna Matata

**Author's Note:**

> This story idea popped up at me and needless to say, I liked the idea behind it.

"It's time," Simba said. Nala raised herself up from her slumber looking up toward her aged best friend, lover, and king.

“So soon?”

“I have to go home.”

She looked over toward the resting couple, expecting their own any day now, the next in line for the throne. She looked over toward the king. His time had come. She got up to all four paws then rubbed along his mane. His mane reached longer than it had before on his figure. His fur had faded, his colorful nose had became mostly black, with torn ears that barely stood out against his massive mane. He walked slowly toward the opening of the cavern humming to himself a song from long ago with a well aged voice swaying his hind quarters back and forth along with his tail quite weakly. 

He almost fell down to his side if it were not for Nala joining him. She can feel her time was coming near. They once had white fangs that had been chipped away with time turning into yellow and their teeth were worn down. She guided him down the path only coming to a pause with Zazu and Rafiki who were in wait. They bowed before Simba. So Simba bowed back with a weak smile. The farewells were silent, arranged, done long ago. Zazu flew into the air soaring above them. 

The trek was long but comfortable with the help of Rafiki and a rogue lion that Simba once called a potential heir to the throne. Kion and his friends lead the group away from the pride lands toward the familiar valley that was the beginning and the end. The scarred young lion understood the destination more than he had as a cub. The silence between was measurable by how many pack of hyenas could surround pride rock. 

The group dispersed as did Rafiki. Zazu blew into his handkerchief then tucked it away watching the pair leap down a path leading into the grassy land. A land that once use to be barren and unforgiving. Simba walked slowly with Zazu above watching them. They came to a stop at the familiar place in silence. A large living tree stood in where Mufasa once had been. 

Simba walked ahead of Nala then rubbed his back against the tree. Parts of the bark fell onto his fur roughing it up a bit. The tree was strong and thick enough not to disturbed. With that act performed, he walked past it, and Nala followed him on by his side. Zazu followed until they reached where the point green had turned into the African Desert that was cruel and rough. 

The pair looked up toward the sky watching Zazu return toward the pride lands. Simba walked on, weakly, but his strength remained strong enough to keep him up on his feet. He was wobbly going on for days into the area. They stopped and licked up water in small ponds for short periods of time under the sun. The stroll was nice and comfortable just as it had been on earlier treks in their younger years.

Just as Nala had came so long ago taking Simba, she had came back to the paradise to drop him off. Kiara and Kovu understood the ritual. They had been told at length days before the departure what they had in mind. This time, Simba was leaving the pride lands in the hands of someone he trusted. Simba sang to himself a old song that kept him going. It was a song that Nala once used to find endearing and amusing and silly but now she had found it quite fitting and reasonable. A reasonable catchphrase. 

* * *

They walked through the desert coming toward the line of trees toward the paradise. Simba leaned against Nala, his legs still moving, getting weak and weaker by the passing minute. Once they stepped on to the green grass belonging to the land and the sound of mosquitoes flying around, Simba stood up on his four feet looking around with a big grin that Nala hadn’t seen in the last few months. She laughed watching butterflies fly around them and wind catch up around their aged fur feeling a embrace that wasn’t quite there. 

They walked through the familiar path until they came to one that lead them directly toward a familiar friend. Timon walked slower than he had and his fur was more faded, grayer even, his hair even showed his age, he used a tree branch as his walking stick approaching the tall lion wearing a pair of human glasses. 

“Who’s there?”

“Hello there, old man,”

The glasses appeared to be duct tapped around the base of his skull with a large tracking device around his neck after being tagged by humans and released into the wild a few years ago. And were very difficult to remove. His eyes looked bigger behind the glasses than they were in reality. Timon dropped the walking stick then slowly without aid walked on toward the couple. 

“‘Simba?” Timon said. “Pumbaa, it’s Simba, he came back!”

Pumbaa slowly came from behind a skinny tree then trotted off toward them. 

“And Nala!” Pumbaa said. “Your majesty!“

Pumbaa and Timon knelted but Pumba held out one hoof out for his friend keeping him balance on his feet. 

“Ex-majesty,” Nala said. “You don’t need to do that.”

Pumbaa picked up the walking stick then held it out for the meercat. 

“You. . . you. . . you mean to say you’ve abdicated the throne?” 

“We did that a week ago,” Simba said. “I just thought, I am too old to lead the pride lands, it’s Hakuna Matata for me.”

“And me,” Nala said. “We are staying here for awhile.”

“How long is awhile?”

“Just for a few days,” Simba lowered his head down toward the meercat. “A day or two or three.”

“Welcome home, kid,” Timon threw his hands out on the lion’s mane. 

Simba lifted out up paw then put on the old meercat’s back and smiled. 

“Come on,” Pumbaa said. “We got adventures we have been dying to tell!”

“We just got back from a far off planet with animals that DON’T talk!“ Timon said. “Rocket ship. Humans thought we would make excellent test subjects! Well, we are not closely related to humans! And I have no idea what those mooks were thinking!”

“They said it was a mix up, Timon,” Pumbaa said. 

“And it was the most horrible thing I had to be put through,” Timon said. “Excluding that terrible golf player.”

Simba and Nala had well aged laughter as they joined the buddies toward the center piece of where Timon and Pumbaa decided to rest and stop. The duo regaled their tales, cutting each other off, laughing in between their tales, eating a grub or two, throwing in how many times they were thrown out of the white house, and out of a zoo. Laughter was in the air as the hours were passing by. The couple declined food offered by the friends. 

“And you know what I said?” Timon asked. 

“Counting a starving vampire,” Simba said. “I can imagine exactly what you said. Hakuna Matata,”

“What a wonderful phrase,” Nala said. “Remind me what it means.”

“It means no worries for the rest of your days,” Pumbaa sang. “It’s our problem free philosophy!”

“Hakuna Matata!”

“It means no worries!”

“For the rest of your days!” 

The group burst into laughter and delight. 

“Did we leave out the time we nearly died chasing a worm?” Timon asked. 

“No,” Simba said. “Tell me about it.“

* * *

Timon and Pumba regaled their tales over and over to the delight of Nala and Simba passing away time that they had. Eventually, Timon and Pumbaa grew tired then left them be. Timon wasn’t quire sure how long that they had listened to their stories or how long that he and Pumbaa had slept then got back up to their feet with difficult out of their shared bed. 

Time flew by faster than it used to back in their younger and appealing days. And despite the lack of time being aware of them and them being aware of it, they had a good time with their favorite royal couple.

Timon and Pumbaa searched through the environment searching for them until coming to a stop at where the trio once used to stargaze. They were set side by side, heads lowered between their paws, but they weren’t moving. Timon began to tear up turning away from them. 

“Can you feel the heart break?” Timon asked, his voice shaking, trembling, tears on the edges of his eyes. 

“It can only be assumed. . .” Pumbaa sang. “His time here was limited,”

“So our boy came home.” They sang in unison in front of the bulky lions. 

Timon crashed along the side of Simba’s face then wept clenching on to his mane and the tip of his nose. Pumbaa sat beside him and sobbed with him with his head lowered then reached out one hoof on Timon’s side.

**The End.**


End file.
